JOHN LEWIS EXTENDS LONG TERM PARTNERSHIP WITH IFORCE

John Lewis, the UK’s leading omni-channel retailer has again extended its relationship with iForce, the UK’s fastest growing supply chain business, for the provision of on-line fulfilment support. iForce were originally chosen by John Lewis to support their launch of on-line retailing in 2002 and the new agreement re-confirms iForce as a key John Lewis fulfilment partner into at least the next decade.

Operating from a 238,000 square foot warehouse facility in Redditch, iForce will continue to provide their Gateway fulfilment service powered by its unique software (SMART) to assemble customer orders for delivery to home and for the Click & Collect solution, which is offered at over 300 John Lewis and Waitrose stores across the UK.

Supporting the John Lewis on-line business sees the core workforce of over 200 colleagues flex to 900 colleagues for the peak trading period in November and December. Over 700 temporary colleagues will graduate from iForce’s unique Training Academy programme, prior to being able to pick and pack orders to ensure that the highest levels of order accuracy are maintained for John Lewis’s customers.

Dino Rocos, Lead Director at John Lewis, said: “For more than 15 years, iForce has played an important role in supporting our multi-channel strategy and helping our business to achieve consistently strong levels of growth. During this long and successful partnership, we have benefitted from iForce’s software and operational proficiency to deliver a range of benefits to our customers. As one of our key online fulfilment partners, we know we can trust iForce to continue to help us deliver higher levels of customer service and further cost efficiencies across the supply chain, something they have achieved for the last 14 years. We are delighted to have their support in the next chapter of our growth story.”

Brian Gaunt, CEO of iForce, said: “Maintaining our long term relationship with John Lewis, highly regarded for their customer focus and innovation, requires a similar level of commitment to these principles from their partners. The extension of our relationship demonstrates that we continue to support and meet these challenges through our ability to innovate using the capability of our software and people. We are delighted to be working as a partner to John Lewis through to at least the next decade.”